Kirkland Just Tossed Out The Plastic Bags! (Seattle, Issaquah: house, buying)

[kanhawk]

What annoys me is the businesses use this as a excuse to charge for the paper bags in Olympia when it passed. Before plastic was around, we didn't have to pay for paper bags. Now we do. Just another way to nickel and dime people.

[CityWok]

I believe someone mentioned earlier that this fee was brought on by the local government. Not sure if that's true for Olympia too or not, but a bit of social engineering to encourage people to re-use bags, instead of always taking new ones.

I'd think business would not want to charge for the bags, since those costs could be easily lumped into the sales they make.

[Ultrarunner]

I don't like it either... but, it is here to stay and has been law in parts of California for several years now.

At one time, cleanliness was paramount.

Back in the day of bottle deposits it was a huge problem for grocers... if nothing else, just the ants that were attracted from empty soda bottles.

Have several in the extended family in the grocery store side of things and it is a problem... 99% of the customers are conscientious... or better yet, not a problem... the 1% with nasty bags with mold and filfth create a problem... one bag had a live mouse in it!!!

Also makes it easier to shoplift... just saying

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by CityWok

I believe someone mentioned earlier that this fee was brought on by the local government. Not sure if that's true for Olympia too or not, but a bit of social engineering to encourage people to re-use bags, instead of always taking new ones.

I'd think business would not want to charge for the bags, since those costs could be easily lumped into the sales they make.

I always re-purpose my bags... just not by taking them back to the store...

The throw away bags are perfect for waste basket liners, small totes and to wrap things that might leak... with several of course.

[revelated]

Originally Posted by Dport7674

Used to be you were bad if you asked for paper bags.."Think about all the innocent trees being cut down!"

Each generation needs to rebel against something I guess.

LOL I remember that!


From my perspective paper bags are a nightmare that nobody bothered to think through. No handles to carry them, too wide, too tall, etc. Plastic bags, I remember being able to loop 10 of them in one hand.

My only issue with plastic bags is, they're too small to hold trash and too flimsy to hold anything else, so I had a tendency to just stuff them down between the fridge and the counter "just in case". Never ended up using them. Same thing my parents did for decades.

I'm ok with the cloth reusable bags but frankly, stores should be banned from charging for one basic reusable cloth bag, if that's the way things are to go.

[Ultrarunner]

Principal of unintended consequences...

I remember going door to door as a kid urging the switch to plastic bags for Earth Day... we had to save the trees... guess I'm dating myself.

They also make 100% biodegradable plastic bags... just saying.

[Marcymox]

Where can I find a list of cities there in the Seattle area that have banned use of bags? If I'm there visiting (I'm in AZ) and decide to do some shopping, should I just always carry fabric tote bags? We don't have a ban here and those that do use fabric bags are seen as sort of... crunchy granola types. I'm not judging, just saying it's interesting how environmental you all are!

Also, a second question that's a bit off topic. What are your recycle policies like? Here we have two cans. Trash ( food, diapers, ect) goes in one- including plastic bags. The Recycle bin is everything else- paper, glass, aluminum. It's not strongly monitored though. No one comes to look in cans to see if the right things are in each one.

Thanks!

[Kayela]

Where can I find a list of cities there in the Seattle area that have banned use of bags? If I'm there visiting (I'm in AZ) and decide to do some shopping, should I just always carry fabric tote bags? We don't have a ban here and those that do use fabric bags are seen as sort of... crunchy granola types. I'm not judging, just saying it's interesting how environmental you all are!

Also, a second question that's a bit off topic. What are your recycle policies like? Here we have two cans. Trash ( food, diapers, ect) goes in one- including plastic bags. The Recycle bin is everything else- paper, glass, aluminum. It's not strongly monitored though. No one comes to look in cans to see if the right things are in each one.

Thanks!

All bags are not banned - just plastic ones. Stores have paper bags, but they do charge 5 cents per bag. Quite frankly when I'm spending $50-100 at the store, 10-15 cents isn't gonna break me, but clerks get really apologetic about it if you don't bring your own, so I suspect they take quite a bit of heat for a policy that is completely out of their control.

Most places here will have 3 bins - trash, recycling and compost. And no - there's no recycle police, it's entirely on you.

That said, yeah - we're granola types out here. We get all the watershed from a huge region, and we have some amazing forests that didn't grow overnight. We see the effect of chemicals and plastics right there in the Sound and in our streams and rivers. It all comes out here. Definitely makes you a bit more protective of it, and a little irritated at the folks upstream (and even the ones right next to it) who don't seem to care what washes out at the end.

[josie13]

I used to live in Dublin, which banned plastic bags in 2007 or 2008. All residents of that part of Ireland carried cloth shopping bags around, folded and tucked into a corner of our backpack or handbag, in case we wanted to make a purchase and carry it home. Dublin trained me well, and since then I always carry a folded bag around with me, just in case. It's a great habit to get into, with no petrochemicals or trees required to carry your shopping home.

[Ultrarunner]

Well... the statewide California ban has been put on hold since a referendum qualified for the ballot...